An organism’s circadian clock exists as a self-regulating oscillator that can synchronize with its surroundings. This manifests as physiological and behavioral output which can anticipate changes in environment. These rhythms may even persist internally and are known to oscillate at a period (tau) of around 24 hours even in the absence of external cues. In the laboratory, such rhythmic output is known as a free-running period (FRP). Given that circadian rhythms are distributed in a number of taxa as well as their tendency to oscillate along with the solar day, it has been suggested that they result from natural selection. The argument that tone’s clock is adaptive is based on how it is advantageous: the clock instills temporal order among physiological processes as well as enabling one to anticipate external cues. Losing that order in one’s clock has also been associated with a number of metabolic and neurological pathologies. Along with adaptive significance, it has been surmised that an internal clock which synchronizes with one’s surrounding environment is beneficial to an individual. An organism whose free-running period closest matches the rhythmic output of its external environment will exhibit a higher relative fitness as compared to those whose periods deviate from 24 hours. This forms the basis of the ‘circadian resonance hypothesis’. Circadian resonance has been examined in a number of species, from Cyanobacteria to mammals. Collectively, experimental results have supported the rationale that an individual does best when its internal clock resonates with the 24 hour day. The bowl and doily spider, Frontinella communis, not only has its own endogenous rhythm (free-running period), it exhibits an average free-running period of 28.26 hours, deviating from a usual period of ~24 hours. Keeping in mind the circadian resonance hypothesis, an internal clock with such an extreme deviation from the 24 hour day should prove detrimental to one’s overall health. Despite this, Frontinella communis not only has a long clock; among the species, their clocks also appear to be highly variable, FRPs ranging from ~24 to ~33 hours. This study monitored locomotor activity of Frontinella communis to examine whether its free-running period, on average, remained the same throughout its active season (May-September). It was found that average free-running period in F. communis varied significantly over a five-month period. Average FRP appears to peak in June followed by a steady, linear decline as the season continues. A variety of organisms have been shown to exhibit seasonal responses that allow them to cope with environmental change. It is not known whether the change in Frontinella’s FRP is such an advantage or is merely coincidental. Any free running period detected under the alpha level of 0.05 was not ruled significant. Along with the rise and fall of average FRPs, the presence of FRP deemed significant was found to decline as the season ended- 42% of individuals (n= 19) reported as arrhythmic. While age has been found to correlate with circadian desynchrony in other taxa (rats, humans), an association in Frontinella remains to be tested.

<p>The most important aspects of nuclear medicine imaging systems such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) or Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) are the spatial resolution and the sensitivity (detector efficiency in combination with the geometric efficiency). Considerable efforts have been spent during the last two decades in improving the resolution and the efficiency by developing new detectors. Our proposed improvement technique is focused on the readout and electronics. Instead of using traditional pulse height analysis techniques we propose using free running digital sampling by replacing the analog readout and acquisition electronics with fully digital programmable systems.</p><p>This thesis describes a fully digital data acquisition system for KS/SU SPECT, new algorithms for high resolution timing for PET, and modular FPGA based decentralized data acquisition system with optimal timing and energy. The necessary signal processing algorithms for energy assessment and high resolution timing are developed and evaluated. The implementation of the algorithms in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and digital signal processors (DSP) is also covered. Finally, modular decentralized digital data acquisition systems based on FPGAs and Ethernet are described.</p>

The most important aspects of nuclear medicine imaging systems such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) or Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) are the spatial resolution and the sensitivity (detector efficiency in combination with the geometric efficiency). Considerable efforts have been spent during the last two decades in improving the resolution and the efficiency by developing new detectors. Our proposed improvement technique is focused on the readout and electronics. Instead of using traditional pulse height analysis techniques we propose using free running digital sampling by replacing the analog readout and acquisition electronics with fully digital programmable systems. This thesis describes a fully digital data acquisition system for KS/SU SPECT, new algorithms for high resolution timing for PET, and modular FPGA based decentralized data acquisition system with optimal timing and energy. The necessary signal processing algorithms for energy assessment and high resolution timing are developed and evaluated. The implementation of the algorithms in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and digital signal processors (DSP) is also covered. Finally, modular decentralized digital data acquisition systems based on FPGAs and Ethernet are described.

This thesis introduces, for the first time, a novel 4-bit, metal-oxide-metal (MOM) digital capacitor switching array (MOMDCSA) which has been implemented into a wideband CMOS voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) for 5 GHz WiMAX/WLAN applications. The proposed MOMDCSA is added both in series and parallel to nMOS varactors. For further gain linearity, a wider tuning range and minor phase noise variations, this varactor bank is connected in parallel to four nMOS varactor pairs, each of which is biased at a different voltage. Thus, VCO tuning gain reduces and optimal phase noise variation is obtained across a wide range of frequencies. Based on this premise, a wideband VCO is achieved with low phase noise variation of less than 4.7 dBc/Hz. The proposed VCO has been designed using UMC 130 nm CMOS technology. It operates from 3.45 GHz to 6.23 GHz, with a phase noise of -133.80 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset, a figure of merit (FoM) of -203.5 dBc/Hz. A novel microstrip low-phase noise oscillator is based on a left-handed (LH) metamaterial bandpass filter which is embedded in the feedback loop of the oscillator. The oscillator is designed at a complex quality factor Qsc peak frequency, to achieve excellent phase noise performance. At a centre frequency of 2.05 GHz, the reported oscillator demonstrates, experimentally, a phase noise of -126.7 dBc/Hz at a 100 kHz frequency offset and a FoM of -207.2 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz frequency offset. The increasing demands have been placed on the electromagnetic compatibility performance of VCO devices is crucial. Therefore, this thesis extends the potential of highly flexible and conductive graphene laminate to the application of electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. Graphene nanoflake-based conductive ink is printed on paper, and then it is compressed to form graphene laminate with a conductivity of 0.43×105 S/m. Shielding effectiveness is experimentally measured at above 32 dB as being between 12GHz and 18GHz, even though the thickness of the graphene laminate is only 7.7µm. This result demonstrates that graphene has great potential for offering lightweight, low-cost, flexible and environmentally friendly shielding materials which can be extended to offering required shielding from electromagnetic interference (EMI), not only for VCO phase noise optimisation, but also for sensitive electronic devices.

The diploma thesis is dealt with a project of a new manufacture method of a bicycle´s part. The part is a brake drum, which is the necessary part of a free-running charge. In an intro-duction of the diploma thesis is described a nowdays manufacture technology and its deficiencies. According to the nowdays manufacture technology was designed a new one, which is based on a cold volumetric shanking. The shanked hemihedron is consequently shaped according to the current technology. After the operation of cold shaping an instrument is projected. The project of the shaping technology is filled up by the calculation of the essential parameters, including an arrangement of the instrument and the process. An economical evaluation of the new process of the brake drum is stated and its advantages and disadvantaged were selected.

A characteristic feature of species of Trichoderma is the production of concentric rings of conidia in response to alternating light-dark conditions. In response to a single burst of light, a single ring of conidia forms at what was the colony perimeter. On the basis of these observations, competency to photoconidiate has been proposed to be due to the age and metabolic rate of the hyphal cell. In this study, conidiation was investigated in five biocontrol isolates (T. hamatum, T. atroviride, T. asperellum, T. virens and T. harzianum) using both a morphological and molecular approach. All five isolates produced concentric conidial rings under alternating light-dark conditions on potato-dextrose agar (PDA), however, in response to a 15 min burst of blue light, only T. asperellum and T. virens produced a clearly, defined conidial ring which correlated with the colony margin at the time of light exposure. Both T. harzianum and T. hamatum photoconidiated in a disk-like fashion and T. atroviride produced a broken ring with a partially filled in appearance. On the basis of these results, it was postulated that competency to photoconidiate is a factor of the metabolic state of the hyphal cell rather than chronological age or metabolic rate. The influence of the source of nitrogen on photoconidiation was assessed on pH-buffered (pH 5.4) minimal medium (MM) amended with glutamine, urea or KNO₃. In the presence of glutamine or urea, T. asperellum and T. harzianum conidiated in a disk, whereas, when KNO₃ was the sole nitrogen source, a ring of conidia was produced. Further, in the presence of increasing amounts of glutamine, the clearly defined photoconidial ring produced on PDA by T. asperellum became disk-like. These results clearly demonstrated that primary nitrogen promotes photoconidiation in these isolates and strongly suggests that competency of a hyphal cell to conidiate in response to light is dependent on the nitrogen catabolite repression state of the cell. The experiments were repeated for all five isolates on unbuffered MM. Differences were apparent between the buffered and unbuffered experiments for T. atroviride. No photoconidiation was observed in T. atroviride on buffered medium whereas on unbuffered medium, rings of conidia were produced on both primary and secondary nitrogen. These results show that photoconidiation in T. atroviride is influenced by the buffering capacity of the medium. Conidiation in response to light by T. hamatum and T. virens was absent in all nitrogen experiments, regardless of the nitrogen source and buffering capacity, whereas both isolates conidiated in response to light on PDA. These results imply that either both sources of nitrogen are required for photoconidiation, or a factor essential for conidiation in these two isolates was absent in the minimal medium. Mycelial injury was also investigated in five biocontrol isolates of Trichoderma. On PDA, all isolates except T. hamatum conidiated in response to injury. On nitrogen amended MM, conidiation in response to injury was again observed in all isolates except for T. hamatum. In T. atroviride, injury-induced conidiation was observed on all medium combinations except the pH-buffered MM amended with glutamine or urea and T. virens conidiated in response to injury on primary nitrogen only, regardless of the buffering capacity. These results have revealed conidiation in response to injury to be differentially regulated between isolates/species of Trichoderma. On unbuffered MM amended with glutamine or urea, conidiation in response to injury occurred at the colony perimeter only in T. atroviride. It was hypothesised that the restriction of conidiation to the perimeter may be due to changes in the pH of the agar. The experiment was repeated and the pH values of the agar under the growing colony measured at the time of light induction (48 h) or injury (72 h). The areas under the hyphal fronts were acidified to below the starting value of the medium (pH 5.4) and the centres of the plates were alkalinised. The region of acidification at the time of stimuli correlated with the production of conidia, which implicates a role for crossregulation of conidiation by the ambient pH. The influence of the ambient pH on injury-induced conidiation was investigated in T. hamatum and T. atroviride on MM amended with glutamine and PDA, pH-buffered from pH 2.8 to 5.6. Thickening of the hyphae around the injury site was observed at the lowest pH values on MM in both T. atroviride and T. hamatum, however no conidia were produced, whereas both Trichoderma species conidiated on pH-buffered PDA in a strictly low pH-dependent fashion. This is the first observation of injury-induced conidiation in T. hamatum. The influence of the ambient pH on photoconidiation was assessed in T. hamatum, T. atroviride and T. harzianum using both buffered and unbuffered PDA from pH 2.8 to 5.2. On buffered PDA, no conidiation in response to light was observed above pH 3.2 in T. hamatum, above 4.0 in T. atroviride and above 4.4 in T. harzianum, whereas on unbuffered PDA it occurred at all pH values tested. It was postulated that conidiation at pH values above 4.4 on unbuffered PDA was due to acidification of the agar. The pH values of the agar under the growing colony were measured at the time of light exposure and in contrast to the MM with glutamine experiments, alkalisation of the agar had occurred in both T. atroviride and T. hamatum. No change in medium pH was recorded under the growing T. harzianum colony. These results indicate that low pH-dependence of photoconidiation is directly related to the buffering capacity of the medium. Recent studies have linked regulation of conidiation in T. harzianum to Pac1, the PacC orthologue. In fungi, PacC regulates gene expression in response to the ambient pH. In these studies pH-dependent photoconidiation occurred only on buffered PDA and on unbuffered PDA conidiation occurred at significantly higher ambient pH levels. It is proposed that the influence of ambient pH on conidiation in the isolates used in this study is not due to direct Pac1 regulation. The T. harzianum isolate used in this study produced profuse amounts of the yellow anthraquinone pachybasin. Production of this secondary metabolite was strictly pH-dependent, irrespective of the buffering capacity of the medium. Studies in T. harzianum have linked Pac1 regulation to production of an antifungal α-pyrone. pH-dependence on both buffered and unbuffered media strongly suggests that pachybasin production may also be under the control of Pac1. Photoconidiation studies on broth-soaked filter paper, revealed rhythmic conidiation in the pachybasin producing T. harzianum isolate. Diffuse rings of conidia were produced in dark-grown cultures and, in cultures exposed to light for 15 min at 48 h, the rings were clearly defined. These results show that conidiation is under the control of an endogenous rhythm in T. harzianum and represent the first report of circadian conidiation in a wild-type Trichoderma. A Free-Running Rhythm (FRR) assay was used to investigate rhythmic gene expression in T. atroviride IMI206040 and a mutant derivative, in which the wc-2 orthologue, blr-2, was disrupted. Over a 3 d period, expression of gpd, which encodes the glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, oscillated with a period of about 48 h. In the Δblr-2 mutant, the gpd rhythm was absent. These results revealed that in T. atroviride, gpd expression is under the control of an endogenous clock and that clock-regulated expression of gpd is associated with a functional BLR complex. Using degenerate primers, a portion of frq, which encodes the N. crassa clock oscillator FREQUENCY, was isolated from T. atroviride and used to probe the FRR assay northern blots. No frq expression was detected at any time point, which suggests that the circadian clock in Trichoderma does not involve FREQUENCY. In a concurrent study, orthologues of rco-1 (rcoT) were isolated and sequenced from T. atroviride and T. hamatum using a combination of degenerate, inverse and specific PCR. RcoT is an orthologue of the yeast global co-repressor Tup1 and in the filamentous fungi, RcoT orthologues have been demonstrated to negatively regulate conidiation. Genomic analysis of all available rcoT orthologues revealed the conservation of erg3, a major ergosterol biosynthesis gene, upstream from rcoT in ascomycetous filamentous fungi, but not in the ascomycetous yeast or in the basidiomycetes. These studies have significantly contributed to our understanding of the regulatory factors controlling conidiation in Trichoderma and have multiple implications for Trichoderma biocontrol; most notable the promotion of conidiation by primary nitrogen and low pH. Incubation conditions can be altered to suit the nitrogen and pH preferences of a biocontrol strain in order to promote cost effective conidial production, however this is not easily achieved in the soil, where the biocontrol strain must perform in a highly buffered environment optimised for plant growth. Successful use of Trichoderma biocontrol strains may involve the screening and targeting of strains to the appropriate pH conditions or the selection of new strains on the basis of capacity to perform under a given range of conditions.

The significant advances in fiber-optic technology have broadened the optical network\'s reach into end-user business premises and even homes, allowing new services and technologies to be delivered to the customers. The next wave of innovation will certainly generate numerous opportunities provided by the widespread popularity of emerging solutions and applications such as tactile Internet, telemedicine and real time 3-D content generation, making them part of everyday life. Nevertheless, to support such an unprecedented and insatiable demand of data traffic, higher capacity and security, flexible bandwidth allocation and cost-efficiency have become crucial requirements for technologies candidate for future optical access networks. To this aim, optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) technology is considered as a prospective candidate, particularly due to features like asynchronous transmissions, flexible as well as conscious bandwidth resource distribution and support to differentiated services at the physical layer, to name but a few. In this context, this thesis proposes new mathematical formalisms for bit error rate, packet throughput and packet delay to assess the performance of flexible OCDMA networks capable of providing multiservice multirate transmissions according to users\' requirements. The proposed analytical formalisms do not require the knowledge a priori of the users\' code sequences, which means that the network performance can be addressed in a simple and straightforward manner using the code parameters only. In addition, the developed analytical formalisms account for a general number of distinct users\' classes as well as general probability of interference among users. Hence, these formalisms can be successfully applied for performance evaluation of flexible OCDMA networks not only under any number of users\' classes in a network, but also for most spreading codes with good correlation properties. The packet throughput expression is derived assuming Poisson, binomial and Markov chain approaches for the composite packet arrivals with the latter defined as benchmark. Then, it is shown via numerical simulation the Poisson-based expression is not appropriate for a reliable throughput estimate when compared to the benchmark (Markov) results. The binomial-based throughput equation, by its turn, provides results as accurate as the benchmark. In addition, the binomial-based throughput is numerically more convenient and computationally more efficient than the Markov chain approach, whereas the Markov-based one is computationally expensive, particularly if the number of users is large. The bit error rate (BER) expressions are derived considering gaussian and binomial distributions for the multiple-access interference and it is shown via numerical simulations that accurate performance of flexible OCDMA networks is only obtained with the binomial-based BER expression. This thesis also proposes and investigates a network architecture for Internet protocol traffic over flexible OCDMA with support to multiservice multirate transmissions, which is independent of the employed spreading code and does not require any new optical processing technology. In addition, the network performance assumes users transmitting asynchronously using receptors based on intensity-modulation direct-detection schemes. Numerical simulations shown that the proposed network performs well when its users are defined with high-weight code or when the channel utilization is low. The BER and packet throughput performance of an OCDMA network that provides multirate transmissions via multicode technique with two codes assigned to each single user is also addressed. Numerical results show that this technique outperforms classical techniques based on multilength code. Finally, this thesis addresses a new breakthrough technology that might lead to higher levels of security at the physical layer of optical networks. This technology consists in the generation of deterministic chaos from a commercial free-running vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The chaotic dynamics is generated by means of mechanical strains loaded onto an off-the-shelf quantum-well VCSEL using a simple and easily replicable holder. Deterministic chaos is then achieved, for the first time, without any additional complexity of optical feedback, parameter modulation or optical injection. The simplicity of the proposed system, which is based entirely on low-cost and easily available components, opens the way to the widespread use of commercial and free-running VCSEL devices for chaos-based applications. This off-the-shelf and cost-effective optical chaos generator has the potential for not only paving the way towards new security platforms in optical networks like, for example, successfully hiding the user information in an unpredictable, random-like signal against eventual eavesdroppers, but also for influencing emerging chaos applications initially limited or infeasible due to the lack of low-cost solutions. Furthermore, it leads the way to future realization of emerging applications with high-integrability and -scalability such as two-dimensional arrays of chaotic devices comprising hundreds of individual sources to increase requirements for random bit generation, cryptography or large-scale quantum networks. / Os avanços relacionados a tecnologia fotônica ampliaram o alcance das redes de comunicação óptica tanto em instalações de estabelecimentos comerciais quanto em residências, permitindo que novos serviços e tecnologias fossem entregues aos clientes. A próxima onda de inovação certamente gerará inúmeras oportunidades proporcionadas pela popularidade de soluções emergentes e aplicações como a Internet tátil, a telemedicina e a geração de conteúdo 3-D em tempo real, tornando-os parte da vida cotidiana. No entanto, para suportar a crescente demanda de tráfego atual, uma maior capacidade e segurança, alocação flexível de largura de banda e custo-eficiência tornaram-se requisitos cruciais para as tecnologias candidatas a futuras redes de acesso óptico. Para este fim, a tecnologia de acesso múltiplo por divisão de código óptico (OCDMA) é considerada um candidato em potencial, particularmente devido a características como transmissões assíncronas, distribuição flexível de banda larga e suporte a serviços diferenciados na camada física, para citar apenas alguns. Neste contexto, esta tese propõe novos formalismos matemáticos para a taxa de erro de bits, taxa de transferência de pacotes e atraso de pacotes para avaliar o desempenho de redes OCDMA flexíveis capazes de fornecer transmissões em múltiplas qualidades de serviço (QoS) de acordo com as necessidades dos usuários. Os formalismos analíticos propostos não requerem o conhecimento a priori das sequências de código dos usuários, o que significa que o desempenho da rede pode ser abordado de forma simples e direta usando apenas os parâmetros de código. Além disso, os formalismos analíticos desenvolvidos representam um número geral de classes de usuários distintos, bem como a probabilidade geral de interferência entre os usuários. Portanto, esses formalismos podem ser aplicados com sucesso na avaliação de desempenho de redes OCDMA flexíveis não apenas em qualquer número de classes de usuários em uma rede, mas também para a maioria dos códigos de espalhamento com boas propriedades de correlação. A expressão de taxa de transferência de pacotes é derivada assumindo aproximações de Poisson, binomial e de cadeia de Markov para as chegadas de pacotes compostos, com a última definida como benchmark. Em seguida, é mostrado via simulação numérica que a expressão baseada em Poisson não é apropriada para uma estimativa confiável de taxa de transferência quando comparada aos resultados de benchmark (Markov). A equação de taxa de transferência binomial, por sua vez, fornece resultados tão precisos quanto o benchmark. Além disso, a taxa de transferência binomial é numericamente mais conveniente e computacionalmente eficiente quando comparada com abordagem de Markov, enquanto esta última é computacionalmente dispendiosa, particularmente se o número de usuários é grande. As expressões de taxa de erro de bit (BER) são derivadas considerando distribuições gaussianas e binomiais para a interferência de acesso múltiplo e é mostrado por meio de simulações numéricas que o desempenho exato de redes OCDMA flexíveis é obtido somente com a expressão binomial de BER. Esta tese também propõe e investiga uma arquitetura de rede para o tráfego de protocolo de Internet sobre OCDMA flexível com suporte a transmissões de QoS e de múltiplas taxas, que é independente do código de espalhamento empregado e não requer qualquer nova tecnologia de processamento óptico. Além disso, o desempenho da rede assume que os usuários transmitem de forma assíncrona usando receptores baseados em esquemas de detecção direta de modulação de intensidade. As simulações numéricas mostraram que a rede proposta possui melhor desempenho quando seus usuários são definidos com peso de código alto ou quando a utilização do canal é baixa. O desempenho da BER e da taxa de transferência de pacotes de uma rede OCDMA que fornece transmissões de múltiplas taxas por meio de uma técnica multi-código com dois códigos atribuídos a cada usuário é também abordado. Os resultados numéricos mostram que esta técnica supera as técnicas clássicas baseadas no código de comprimento múltiplo. Finalmente, esta tese aborda uma nova tecnologia que pode levar a níveis mais elevados de segurança na camada física de redes ópticas. Esta tecnologia consiste na geração de caos determinístico a partir de um laser de emissão superficial com cavidade vertical (VCSEL). A dinâmica caótica é gerada através da aplicação de forças mecânicas em um VCSEL comercial usando um suporte simples e facilmente replicável. O caos determinístico é então alcançado, pela primeira vez, sem qualquer complexidade adicional de realimentação óptica, modulação de parâmetros ou injeção óptica. A simplicidade do sistema proposto, o qual se baseia inteiramente em componentes de baixo custo e que são facilmente encontrados, abre o caminho para o uso de dispositivos VCSEL comerciais para aplicações baseadas em caos. Este gerador de caos óptico tem o potencial não só de pavimentar o caminho para novas plataformas de segurança em redes ópticas, como, por exemplo, ocultar com êxito as informações do usuário em um sinal imprevisível e aleatório contra eventuais invasores, como também tem o potencial de influenciar aplicações de caos emergentes inicialmente limitadas ou inviáveis devido à falta de soluções de baixo custo. Além disso, ele conduz o caminho para a realização futura de aplicações emergentes com alta integridade e escalabilidade, tais como matrizes bidimensionais de dispositivos caóticos que compreendem centenas de fontes individuais para aumentar as necessidades de geração de bit aleatória, criptografia ou redes quânticas de grande escala.

The significant advances in fiber-optic technology have broadened the optical network\'s reach into end-user business premises and even homes, allowing new services and technologies to be delivered to the customers. The next wave of innovation will certainly generate numerous opportunities provided by the widespread popularity of emerging solutions and applications such as tactile Internet, telemedicine and real time 3-D content generation, making them part of everyday life. Nevertheless, to support such an unprecedented and insatiable demand of data traffic, higher capacity and security, flexible bandwidth allocation and cost-efficiency have become crucial requirements for technologies candidate for future optical access networks. To this aim, optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) technology is considered as a prospective candidate, particularly due to features like asynchronous transmissions, flexible as well as conscious bandwidth resource distribution and support to differentiated services at the physical layer, to name but a few. In this context, this thesis proposes new mathematical formalisms for bit error rate, packet throughput and packet delay to assess the performance of flexible OCDMA networks capable of providing multiservice multirate transmissions according to users\' requirements. The proposed analytical formalisms do not require the knowledge a priori of the users\' code sequences, which means that the network performance can be addressed in a simple and straightforward manner using the code parameters only. In addition, the developed analytical formalisms account for a general number of distinct users\' classes as well as general probability of interference among users. Hence, these formalisms can be successfully applied for performance evaluation of flexible OCDMA networks not only under any number of users\' classes in a network, but also for most spreading codes with good correlation properties. The packet throughput expression is derived assuming Poisson, binomial and Markov chain approaches for the composite packet arrivals with the latter defined as benchmark. Then, it is shown via numerical simulation the Poisson-based expression is not appropriate for a reliable throughput estimate when compared to the benchmark (Markov) results. The binomial-based throughput equation, by its turn, provides results as accurate as the benchmark. In addition, the binomial-based throughput is numerically more convenient and computationally more efficient than the Markov chain approach, whereas the Markov-based one is computationally expensive, particularly if the number of users is large. The bit error rate (BER) expressions are derived considering gaussian and binomial distributions for the multiple-access interference and it is shown via numerical simulations that accurate performance of flexible OCDMA networks is only obtained with the binomial-based BER expression. This thesis also proposes and investigates a network architecture for Internet protocol traffic over flexible OCDMA with support to multiservice multirate transmissions, which is independent of the employed spreading code and does not require any new optical processing technology. In addition, the network performance assumes users transmitting asynchronously using receptors based on intensity-modulation direct-detection schemes. Numerical simulations shown that the proposed network performs well when its users are defined with high-weight code or when the channel utilization is low. The BER and packet throughput performance of an OCDMA network that provides multirate transmissions via multicode technique with two codes assigned to each single user is also addressed. Numerical results show that this technique outperforms classical techniques based on multilength code. Finally, this thesis addresses a new breakthrough technology that might lead to higher levels of security at the physical layer of optical networks. This technology consists in the generation of deterministic chaos from a commercial free-running vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The chaotic dynamics is generated by means of mechanical strains loaded onto an off-the-shelf quantum-well VCSEL using a simple and easily replicable holder. Deterministic chaos is then achieved, for the first time, without any additional complexity of optical feedback, parameter modulation or optical injection. The simplicity of the proposed system, which is based entirely on low-cost and easily available components, opens the way to the widespread use of commercial and free-running VCSEL devices for chaos-based applications. This off-the-shelf and cost-effective optical chaos generator has the potential for not only paving the way towards new security platforms in optical networks like, for example, successfully hiding the user information in an unpredictable, random-like signal against eventual eavesdroppers, but also for influencing emerging chaos applications initially limited or infeasible due to the lack of low-cost solutions. Furthermore, it leads the way to future realization of emerging applications with high-integrability and -scalability such as two-dimensional arrays of chaotic devices comprising hundreds of individual sources to increase requirements for random bit generation, cryptography or large-scale quantum networks. / Os avanços relacionados a tecnologia fotônica ampliaram o alcance das redes de comunicação óptica tanto em instalações de estabelecimentos comerciais quanto em residências, permitindo que novos serviços e tecnologias fossem entregues aos clientes. A próxima onda de inovação certamente gerará inúmeras oportunidades proporcionadas pela popularidade de soluções emergentes e aplicações como a Internet tátil, a telemedicina e a geração de conteúdo 3-D em tempo real, tornando-os parte da vida cotidiana. No entanto, para suportar a crescente demanda de tráfego atual, uma maior capacidade e segurança, alocação flexível de largura de banda e custo-eficiência tornaram-se requisitos cruciais para as tecnologias candidatas a futuras redes de acesso óptico. Para este fim, a tecnologia de acesso múltiplo por divisão de código óptico (OCDMA) é considerada um candidato em potencial, particularmente devido a características como transmissões assíncronas, distribuição flexível de banda larga e suporte a serviços diferenciados na camada física, para citar apenas alguns. Neste contexto, esta tese propõe novos formalismos matemáticos para a taxa de erro de bits, taxa de transferência de pacotes e atraso de pacotes para avaliar o desempenho de redes OCDMA flexíveis capazes de fornecer transmissões em múltiplas qualidades de serviço (QoS) de acordo com as necessidades dos usuários. Os formalismos analíticos propostos não requerem o conhecimento a priori das sequências de código dos usuários, o que significa que o desempenho da rede pode ser abordado de forma simples e direta usando apenas os parâmetros de código. Além disso, os formalismos analíticos desenvolvidos representam um número geral de classes de usuários distintos, bem como a probabilidade geral de interferência entre os usuários. Portanto, esses formalismos podem ser aplicados com sucesso na avaliação de desempenho de redes OCDMA flexíveis não apenas em qualquer número de classes de usuários em uma rede, mas também para a maioria dos códigos de espalhamento com boas propriedades de correlação. A expressão de taxa de transferência de pacotes é derivada assumindo aproximações de Poisson, binomial e de cadeia de Markov para as chegadas de pacotes compostos, com a última definida como benchmark. Em seguida, é mostrado via simulação numérica que a expressão baseada em Poisson não é apropriada para uma estimativa confiável de taxa de transferência quando comparada aos resultados de benchmark (Markov). A equação de taxa de transferência binomial, por sua vez, fornece resultados tão precisos quanto o benchmark. Além disso, a taxa de transferência binomial é numericamente mais conveniente e computacionalmente eficiente quando comparada com abordagem de Markov, enquanto esta última é computacionalmente dispendiosa, particularmente se o número de usuários é grande. As expressões de taxa de erro de bit (BER) são derivadas considerando distribuições gaussianas e binomiais para a interferência de acesso múltiplo e é mostrado por meio de simulações numéricas que o desempenho exato de redes OCDMA flexíveis é obtido somente com a expressão binomial de BER. Esta tese também propõe e investiga uma arquitetura de rede para o tráfego de protocolo de Internet sobre OCDMA flexível com suporte a transmissões de QoS e de múltiplas taxas, que é independente do código de espalhamento empregado e não requer qualquer nova tecnologia de processamento óptico. Além disso, o desempenho da rede assume que os usuários transmitem de forma assíncrona usando receptores baseados em esquemas de detecção direta de modulação de intensidade. As simulações numéricas mostraram que a rede proposta possui melhor desempenho quando seus usuários são definidos com peso de código alto ou quando a utilização do canal é baixa. O desempenho da BER e da taxa de transferência de pacotes de uma rede OCDMA que fornece transmissões de múltiplas taxas por meio de uma técnica multi-código com dois códigos atribuídos a cada usuário é também abordado. Os resultados numéricos mostram que esta técnica supera as técnicas clássicas baseadas no código de comprimento múltiplo. Finalmente, esta tese aborda uma nova tecnologia que pode levar a níveis mais elevados de segurança na camada física de redes ópticas. Esta tecnologia consiste na geração de caos determinístico a partir de um laser de emissão superficial com cavidade vertical (VCSEL). A dinâmica caótica é gerada através da aplicação de forças mecânicas em um VCSEL comercial usando um suporte simples e facilmente replicável. O caos determinístico é então alcançado, pela primeira vez, sem qualquer complexidade adicional de realimentação óptica, modulação de parâmetros ou injeção óptica. A simplicidade do sistema proposto, o qual se baseia inteiramente em componentes de baixo custo e que são facilmente encontrados, abre o caminho para o uso de dispositivos VCSEL comerciais para aplicações baseadas em caos. Este gerador de caos óptico tem o potencial não só de pavimentar o caminho para novas plataformas de segurança em redes ópticas, como, por exemplo, ocultar com êxito as informações do usuário em um sinal imprevisível e aleatório contra eventuais invasores, como também tem o potencial de influenciar aplicações de caos emergentes inicialmente limitadas ou inviáveis devido à falta de soluções de baixo custo. Além disso, ele conduz o caminho para a realização futura de aplicações emergentes com alta integridade e escalabilidade, tais como matrizes bidimensionais de dispositivos caóticos que compreendem centenas de fontes individuais para aumentar as necessidades de geração de bit aleatória, criptografia ou redes quânticas de grande escala.